But Andy Morgan, technology sector leader, corporate finance at PwC, said that the signs are a
slowdown were already evident and there could be a further drop in deals over the course of this
quarter.

"The flagging market was beginning to pant by Q4 2008. A third of global deals in terms of both
volume and value were completed between January and March. In fact, the final quarter saw the
lowest level of deal completions in the sector since the depths of the post bubble market in 2002,"
he said.

He said the UK had slowed down in parallel with the economy with just a trickle of deals being
completed in the fourth quarter.

"But the big question is - has the technology deal environment developed some truly defensive
attributes, or will the inevitable impact of the downturn on corporate IT budgets hit home in
2009?" he added.

In the last few weeks there have been sings that M&A activity remains a viable option in the
reseller market with deals such as the acquisition of the Rapid Group by Trams an example of dealer
consolidation.

This week, IndependenceIT unveiled the 4.0 version of Cloud Workspace Suite, which features a number of enhancements; Knowledge Vault launched a partner program for its cloud-based analytics-as-a-service platform; and more.

Of all the managed services types that solution providers can potentially offer, managed communications has proven to be among the knottiest. Learn about the difficulties involved in delivering them and evaluating prospective partnerships.

Value-added resellers and service providers interested in reselling Aruba networking hardware and software can learn the benefits of becoming an Aruba Networks partner with this standardized checklist. Compare Aruba's reseller partner program with other vendors' offering similar products.